thinking of others

bath

as promised, here are some more pix of bath. bath is one of the prettiest towns in england. i fell in love with bath my first summer here (1998) when i traveled around the u.k. staying with friends and friends-of-friends. surprisingly, s had never been there. it seemed like a perfect place for a romantic anniversary weekend, and it did not disappoint. of course, everything does look better in sunshine with blooming flowers, and on that front mother nature did not disappoint either.



royal victoria park


unfortunately, my snapshots don't do it justice, no matter how many megapixels my digital camera has.



bath abbey



bath abbey seen from the roman baths



the roman baths






royal crescent



duck! duck!

bath spa

saturday was our first anniversary, so we spent the weekend in the absolutely, perfectly, unequivocably, charmingly lovely town of bath (pronounced bahhhh - th). more pictures to come but here is the requisite shot of pulteney bridge and the cascading weir.

pretty shiny things

this week has been lovely and warm. the perfect time to bring out sparkly bling and color!





my toes are enjoying the sunshine, too. do you like my new birkenstocks? these are actually a pair from last year's flowery crop; i was disheartened to discover that they're only making solids this summer. but never fear, the internet came through and now i have happy feet.


i keep thinking about this song by paolo nutini:

Hey, I put some new shoes on,
and suddenly everything is right,
I said, hey, I put some new shoes on and everybody's smiling,
it so inviting,
Oh, short on money,
but long on time,
slowly strolling in the sweet sunshine,
and i'm running late,
and i don't need an excuse,
'cause i'm wearing my brand new shoes

it's rare for a man to capture accessory adoration* with such eloquence, but in this case, paolo's right on the money.



* i can't think of a better way to describe this, but m knows what i'm talking about. accessories make all the difference. shiny, sparkly, blingy things make me happy. jewelry and scarves. fun shoes. beads, sequins, rhinestones, long flowy ribbons. all that cutesy girlie stuff. so there. now you know. and i'm going to keep on smiling, because i've got my new shoes on and everything is right...

serious stuff

click the tag to show your support for BBC reporter alan johnston



***

on an unrelated note, i read about this in the reuter's oddly enough section:

what is stephen harper reading?

yann martel, author of life of pi has pledged to send the canadian prime minister a different book every two weeks for the rest of his tenure in office. he decided to start with tolstoy. i suspect that anyone attempting to do the same for W would be better off starting with something like all i really to know i learned in kindergarten. share, hold hands, and take naps.

easter weekend in yorkshire

we had a lovely extended weekend in yorkshire with s's family.


the second batch of mer-in-gyoos came out nearly perfect in terms of color and texture (still a bit chewy) and i continued the pastel theme by wrapping them in blue and white tissue paper tied with pink ribbon bows.






country lane



toy story 3: woody and buzz lightyear go to ossett?



the very picturesque town of knaresborough












and the best part? all those chocolate eggs that are still waiting to be eaten!

meringues

perhaps this blog entry is a bit premature - the meringues are still in the oven - but i'm excited by a bit of sweet pastel goodness for our easter trip to yorkshire.

i'm making meringues. s informs me that "mer-in-gyoos" is the proper pronunciation for these tiny treats. so be it.



i asked s to choose his own special shape and colo(u)r. i present the green mer-in-gyoo gingerbreadman.



hmmm. not entirely convincing, is it? hopefully the fully baked version will be less...pointy. stay tuned.

***later***

oh dear, slightly disappointing result. where did the color go?



and the gingerbreadman. oh no... at least he came off all in one piece!

something fishy

poor cornelius is still suffering from his goldfish buoyancy problem. about once a week when the water needs to be changed, he starts to float. this week he managed to flip completely upside down.



as usual, bob is totally unfazed.




some people who don't know me better might question my decision to change the water before eating sushi for lunch. you might say i was heartless, cruel, inhumane. but i assure you, that is simply not the case. cornelius will resume his upright position soon, and in the meantime i get to tuck into some nice spicy tuna and salmon. at worst, it's just bad timing, if not brilliant judgement, on my part.

see? not even remotely connected to the goldfish.


* i am sooo going to hear about this from my vegetarian father-in-law and sister-in-law at easter!

ready for the weekend

i try not to bring work home with me, but apparently i was in such a rush to leave the office on friday afternoon that i forgot to take off my neon yellow safety vest before clocking out.

d'oh.

it happens to everyone at some point or another. at least i came straight home with my vest underneath my raincoat, revealing my forgetful indiscretion to exactly no one (until now). the boss' wife once famously wore her vest over to a friend's house, and spent several hours sipping tea and chatting before she noticed that she still had hers on. when she asked her friend why she hadn't said anything, the friend replied that she thought it was part of her outfit. ouch!

anyhow, i suppose i really needed the break this weekend. i have been quite busy at work the past few weeks. i attempted to fix the wasabi jumper last weekend but ultimately knitted a few rows, realized i had made another mistake, ripped back, tried again, made the same mistake again, and ripped it back again. i will try again later when my head is a bit clearer.

for now, i'm enjoying the sun streaming through the windows and music playing on s's ipod. ah, domestic life...!

have a good weekend. i'll post again soon.

xo, b

brandarling.com

i'm a dotcom!

did you notice that my URL changed? don't worry - brandarling is still hosted on blogger, so your bcuk.blogspot.com bookmark will continue to work. but you can now google me! (kinda. my full name is still virtually unknown on the www and i'm perfectly happy with that.)

and when i get around to it, i'll change the brandarling header, too.

stay tuned!

wasabi jumper conundrum

oh dear. i was afraid of this. do you see that ridge where i moved from knitting the body in the round, to separating the front and back and knitting each part straight?

here's my dilemma: i doubt if it can be fixed or avoided in the first place. so do i continue and resign myself to the fact that there will be a distinct line across my bodice and back, or do i rip it back and start over (how?)

and i believe that the sleeves are done the same way: start in the round and then finish straight. how weird will that look???

or am i the only person who will ever notice it - besides all those other eagle-eyed handknitters out there?

i really love this jumper so far and want to see it through to the end, so i can wear it with pride and tell people, "yes, i made it myself. isn't it lovely?" but will i always have that twinge of disappointment that it was going so well until i hit that critical point?

any and all advice welcome! please!

monterey bay aquarium

i know it's petty, but i'm jealous. s got a comment on his blog from the PR manager at the monterey bay aquarium, and i want one, too. or at least a kind comment from you, dear reader. (see, this is why i don't have stats enabled on my blog. i don't want to know who reads - or doesn't read - my blog. it's healthier that way. hmph.)


the monterey bay aquarium really is one of my favorite places in california, and i'm not just saying that. i always thought that if i were more scientifically inclined, i would love to be a marine biologist. as it is, i have my advanced open water SCUBA diving certificate, which is the next best thing. i once went on an ill-fated diving trip in monterey with my best friend's brother - our goal being to swim among the otters. unfortunately, forces conspired against me and i couldn't sink, so i ended up bobbing along the top of a kelp bed until we gave up and went home. if you can't swim with the otters, the aquarium is a great alternative for viewing them without getting wet.


anyhow, as ken peterson noted on s's blog, it is not easy to photograph the sealife at the aquarium, but i think i managed to get a few decent shots. (so did s, for that matter. much better jellyfish in general.)



upside-down jellyfish, with one right-side-up in the foreground















a penguin pic for m. i know she'll leave a nice comment, even if you can see reflections in the window!



an unusual photo op of the octopus on the move


stepping outside the aquarium for a moment, we came upon another rare sight. before we went to the aquarium, i had read about the new baby otters and was a bit disappointed that our visit was just a few weeks too early to see them. imagine, then, our excitement at seeing a real live baby otter feeding with its mom!


what you can't hear in these photos was the "meep meep!" noises they made to stay in contact with each other. too cute!












a seagull got in on the feeding action















extreme close-up! thanks to s for helping me photoshop them

















if you can't get to the aquarium, check out youtube. not quite as good as the real thing, but some of the videos are surprisingly well done!